Aero Memorial

The bronze sphere opposite the main entrance of the Franklin Institute is dedicated to the aviators who died in World War I. Inscribed with the Latin names of constellations and planets, the Aero Memorial illustrates the signs of the zodiac in a style that recalls both classicism and Art Deco.

The artist Paul Manship was a leading figure in American sculpture for several decades. Profoundly influenced by classical Roman and archaic Greek Art, he received many major sculpture awards in the United States and abroad, and his famous Prometheus dominates Rockefeller Center in New York. Duck Girl in Rittenhouse Square is one of his early works.

The idea for Aero Memorial was conceived by the Aero Club of Pennsylvania, which donated modest funds for the purpose to Association for Public Art (then known as Fairmount Park Art Association) in 1917. Fundraising took many years and the work did not begin until 1939, when the Art Association contacted Manship.

The idea of a celestial sphere was finally approved in 1944. Manship had already executed a number of similar spheres, including one for the Woodrow Wilson Memorial at the League of Nations in Geneva. Philadelphia’s Parkway Globe, which measures six feet in diameter, was set on a base designed by Joseph P. Sims in 1949, and was dedicated on June 1, 1950.

Adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, 1992). Penny Balkin Bach was Executive Director of the Association for Public Art from 1980 to 2022. Sculpture of a City: Philadelphia’s Treasures in Bronze and Stone by the Fairmount Park Art Association (now the Association for Public Art) (Walker Publishing Co., New York, 1974).